


i think i do

by wackpainterkid (swanandapirate)



Series: Manon's Mondays [5]
Category: SKAM (Netherlands)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-25 08:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19741591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swanandapirate/pseuds/wackpainterkid
Summary: It’s a culmination of different things happening.Her parents celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary; Bennie and Ralph getting engaged; being asked to perform at a wedding.Things that all share a common theme, a similar red thread.And it makes Liv start thinking. So she asks Noah the question: “Do you really wanna get married one day?





	i think i do

**Author's Note:**

> Let me start with saying: no, I’m going to make them marry in this fic, they’re like 20, i just love cliché titles lol. This fic is about a conversation about the future every couple has at some point and because noliv has their "getting married” inside joke, I really wanted them to have a conversation about it for real. Hope you like it.

She doesn’t just randomly ask him one day.  
  


Or maybe she does but there’s a reason for it.  
  


It’s a culmination of different things happening.  
  


Her parents celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary; Bennie and Ralph getting engaged; being asked to perform at a wedding.  
  


Things that all share a common theme, a similar red thread.  
  


And it makes her start thinking.  
  


About things she shouldn’t be thinking about yet. She hasn’t even turned twenty-one.   
  


And yet, she does.  
  


If Liv has to be honest, she doesn’t know why the urge to bring up the topic is so present, why it suddenly becomes a necessity to have this conversation. But it feels like something important and she’s simultaneously curious about his answer so she decides to ask the question.  
  


Well, not _the_ question. A question.   
  


They’re in her room. She is reading, her book hovering above her in her hands, her legs dangling over the edge of the chair she is sitting in. He is working for school, has a laptop propped on his lap as he’s lounging in her bed, her sheets ruffled and creased around him. James Blake is playing from her stereo, the volume somewhere between one meant for active listening and one ideal as background music.

Liv stretches her neck and turns her head towards him before closing her book. She sits a bit straighter.

“Noah?”

He hums in response, eyes still concentrated on the light of his computer screen, fingers still typing away.

She takes a moment to think about how to formulate her question. Noah looks up when the room remains silent, when no additional words leave her lips.

It’s almost an incentive to make her ask what she wants to ask, the look in his eyes, a guarantee that he won’t start laughing at her or question her sanity or anything similar. Liv doesn’t even think it is deliberate on his part, the openness in the blue of his irises, but it’s there and that’s all she needs.

“Do you really want to get married one day?”

She can see the questions appear in his gaze, but he stays silent.

“Not to me,” Liv specifies. She winces right after, instantly regretting the way she says it, the way it sounds. Because it sounds like she doesn’t see a future with him.

“You got any plans I should be aware of?” And even though it’s meant to be humorous, a sliver of apprehension still manages to slip into his voice.

“No, no,” she hurries to reassure him. “I just mean in general. Is marriage something you want?”

Noah shuts his computer screen and sets his computer aside. His hand taps next to him on the mattress; it is subtle, but she notices, recognizes the invitation it is meant to be. She swings her legs off of the couch, throws her book where she was once seated and goes to sit in front of him with her legs crossed.

There’s a silence but it doesn’t worry Liv, doesn’t make her waver. Because the tiny crease between his eyebrows tells her she’ll get an answer, tells her he’s only looking for the right words. He combs through his dark hair.

“I haven’t had the best example of a marriage growing up.”

He doesn’t need to explicitly say who he is talking about, she knows. The many conversations they’ve had over the years help her piece it together.

“They were in love, they got married but they were so dysfunctional with each other; all they did was fight and argue. Even as a small child, I knew that it wasn’t supposed to be that way.” 

With closed eyes, he softly shakes his head. Her hand finds his and it makes him open his eyes again. Where Liv thinks she will see hurt and suffering, there is none. Instead, Noah smiles at her and intertwines their fingers. It’s meant as a reassurance, as a sign she doesn’t have to worry about him. Maybe she was wrong in thinking it still bothered him.

“All my friends had parents that weren’t married but had been together for years– and still are– and my parents couldn’t even make it past five years. So, to me, marriage was never really an option. It was difficult to see the use of it, you know?” His shoulders move in a shrug. “Except for some advantages when filing your taxes but that definitely takes the romance out of the whole ordeal,” he chuckles, and a dimple appears in his cheeks.

She smiles as well. Unfolding her legs, Liv places the soles of her socked feet flat on the mattress and lets her chin rest on her knees. She lets his words enter her thoughts, lets them settle there; she hums as the process takes place, as she understands his point of view more and more.

And Liv knows that the first time he asked her to marry him was to test her, to challenge her own resolution. Okay, she doesn’t actually know but she strongly suspects it and what he just told her does nothing to deny that inclination. She can’t help but wonder, however, whether there’s any truth to it now, whether, all inside jokes aside, he could perhaps imagine that future with her.

She could.

She can.

It’s not like she’s imagined how it all would go. Like she’s thought about everything from the proposal—Noah knows her, it wouldn’t be too big—to their actual wedding. It’s not like she knows exactly what dress she’d wear—she wouldn’t wear a dress, she’d go for a jumpsuit— or where they would go with their small group of guests after the city hall, although the church where they had their first date would probably clean up real nice.

She just likes to think marrying Noah wouldn’t be the worst thing ever.

Far from it.

But she doesn’t need to. If that’s not what he wants. She’d be perfectly happy spending the rest of her foreseeable future with him. She is now.

“However,” Noah says, pulling her out of her thoughts. Liv glances back up. “When I asked you to marry me, it wasn’t a joke or a way to just sleep with you. You simply made me forget all of my arguments against marriage,” he pauses and looks at her with a half-smile “You still do.”

“I said: ‘not to me’,” she corrects him, but she can’t fight the content expression on her face.

He mirrors her with a playful grin. His eyebrows rise.

“Let’s be real, Liv. If I’m ever getting married, it’ll be to you.”

And even though they confirm his desire for a future together even more, confirm that they’re truly on the same page, his words make her frown.

Because, all romance aside, Liv has to be realistic. She wouldn’t be Liv if she isn’t.

“You don’t know that, though. What if we break up next week and afterward, you meet someone who also makes you forget all of your arguments against marriage?”

By now, Noah knows about her realism.

“It is true that I can’t look into the future, but I do know how I feel about you now and no one has ever made me feel like you do.”

She knows about his romantic side too.

They’re a good match, the two of them.

Liv gets up, places her hand on his cheek and kisses him. 

“Where is this coming from?” he asks once she sits across him again and it’s a fair question; it surprises her that he didn’t ask it earlier.

“It isn’t out of the blue,” she promises him. “Something made me start to think about it.”

“Ralph and Bennie?” He wraps one of her curls around his index, but his eyes never leave hers.

“Among other things.”

“Do _you_ want to get married?” he asks and when Liv looks at him, he rushes to add: “Not to me, of course.” His words are accompanied by a wink.

After rolling her eyes, she tries to playfully kick him but before she can reach him, he grabs ahold of her leg and pulls her closer. Liv bursts out in laughter as she tries to escape his grasp. She sits up and places a peck on his lips. And another one. He kisses her back.

They break apart and she begins to think about his question. She bites on her lower lip as she considers her opinion, her answer.

“I don’t really know if I want to get married,” she answers truthfully. “I think I always just assumed I would. When I was younger I wanted the fairytale wedding, but the older I get, the less I like the fuss and the grandeur. Because it should be about love and not the party. It’s also very expensive.”

“Ridiculously expensive,” he echoes.

“So, I think it’s ‘yes’ to getting married, but ‘no’ to a big wedding.” Liv purses her lips and nods to confirm her statement.

Thinking the conversation has ended, she leaves her bed and walks towards the stereo to pick a new CD to play, James Blake’s voice has faded out a while ago. 

“Hey, Liv?” 

“Yes?” She looks over her shoulder, at him still sitting on the bed.

“Just say when, I know an abandoned church we can use.” Noah’s voice is all confidence.

Liv doesn’t say anything about how she was thinking the exact same thing, simply to avoid making him think she’s planned their whole wedding. Which she hasn’t, for the record.

“Just a fair warning,” she says, turning back to her stereo and putting on a new record. “You’re going to have to wait a long time.” 

“Won’t be a problem,” he reassures her. “I can wait as long as needed.”

“Wow,” she exclaims and jumps next to him with a smile. “You must really like me.”

He wraps his arm around her and pulls her closer.

“I think I do.”


End file.
